Pluhowsky, DeVaney victorious at Scorpion Championships
November 29, 2009
Team USA's Shannon Pluhowsky clinched back-to-back Professional Bowlers Association titles in the Women's Series portion of the 2009 PBA Scorpion Championship Sunday, defeating Liz Johnson 192-177 in a dominating performance that nearly collapsed when Pluhowsky opened both the 9th and 10th frames. Johnson, the 2009 USBC Queens Champion, needed a double in the tenth to seal an extraordinary comeback win but fell short with an 8-count on her first ball in a losing effort. Last week Pluhowsky defeated PBA Hall of Famer Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, 268-201, to claim the 2009 PBA Chameleon Championship title.
2007 United States Bowling Congress Masters Champion Sean Rash, on the other hand, might use a word other than "collapse" to describe his match against eventual 2009 PBA Scorpion Champion Mike DeVaney, closing out a dismal 162 game with four opens as DeVaney took the match with a 182. Despite a pocket 7-10, a 2-10 split and a washout that left Rash with three consecutive open frames going into the tenth, he and Devaney were tied at 153 a piece entering the final frame. But Rash responded to DeVaney's clutch double with an 8-count that sealed his fate.
Also in the semifinals was Jason Belmonte, who defeated hometown favorite Tom Smallwood, a non-exempt player who lost his job with General Motors before trying his luck at the PBA World Series of Bowling, 222-175. As Smallwood visibly suffered from a debilitating back injury for which he consulted a chiropractor before the telecast, Belmonte strung 6 consecutive strikes after whiffing the 4-9 split in the first frame. Seeming to wince with each shot he threw, a struggling Smallwood hit the pocket in just three of his eleven shots.
The battle against a brutal lane surface at Detroit's Thunderbowl Lanes then continued, as Mike DeVaney resorted to a urethane ball on the Scorpion pattern for half of his match against Belmonte, who himself switched balls mid-match as he moved his shot from the fourth arrow to the first. But spares are the name of the game on tough conditions and that is likely what Belmonte will keep in mind the next time he finds himself on the verge of another PBA title, as the two-handed sensation failed to convert the 3-6-9 in the 8th frame and did the same with the 3-6-9-10 in the tenth, by which time DeVaney had already secured the title.
All winners of the "animal pattern" events on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour this season qualify to compete in the PBA Experience Showdown presented by BOWL.com, which will air in April.
2007 United States Bowling Congress Masters Champion Sean Rash, on the other hand, might use a word other than "collapse" to describe his match against eventual 2009 PBA Scorpion Champion Mike DeVaney, closing out a dismal 162 game with four opens as DeVaney took the match with a 182. Despite a pocket 7-10, a 2-10 split and a washout that left Rash with three consecutive open frames going into the tenth, he and Devaney were tied at 153 a piece entering the final frame. But Rash responded to DeVaney's clutch double with an 8-count that sealed his fate.
Also in the semifinals was Jason Belmonte, who defeated hometown favorite Tom Smallwood, a non-exempt player who lost his job with General Motors before trying his luck at the PBA World Series of Bowling, 222-175. As Smallwood visibly suffered from a debilitating back injury for which he consulted a chiropractor before the telecast, Belmonte strung 6 consecutive strikes after whiffing the 4-9 split in the first frame. Seeming to wince with each shot he threw, a struggling Smallwood hit the pocket in just three of his eleven shots.
The battle against a brutal lane surface at Detroit's Thunderbowl Lanes then continued, as Mike DeVaney resorted to a urethane ball on the Scorpion pattern for half of his match against Belmonte, who himself switched balls mid-match as he moved his shot from the fourth arrow to the first. But spares are the name of the game on tough conditions and that is likely what Belmonte will keep in mind the next time he finds himself on the verge of another PBA title, as the two-handed sensation failed to convert the 3-6-9 in the 8th frame and did the same with the 3-6-9-10 in the tenth, by which time DeVaney had already secured the title.
All winners of the "animal pattern" events on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour this season qualify to compete in the PBA Experience Showdown presented by BOWL.com, which will air in April.